Formal properties of now revisited
<p>The traditional view is that <em>now</em> is a pure indexical, denoting the utterance time. Yet, despite its initial appeal, the view has faced criticism. A range of data reveal <em>now</em> allows for discourse-bound (i.e., anapho...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Linguistic Society of America
2021
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| _version_ | 1797110474231250944 |
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| author | Stojnić, U Altshuler, D |
| author_facet | Stojnić, U Altshuler, D |
| author_sort | Stojnić, U |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>The traditional view is that <em>now</em> is a pure indexical, denoting the utterance time. Yet, despite its initial appeal, the view has faced criticism. A range of data reveal <em>now</em> allows for discourse-bound (i.e., anaphoric) uses, and can occur felicitously with the past tense. The reaction to this has typically been to treat <em>now</em> as akin to a true demonstrative, selecting the prominent time supplied by the non-linguistic context or prior discourse. We argue this is doubly mistaken. The first mistake concerns the semantic value of <em>now</em> which is not a time, but a state --- the consequent state of a prominent event. The second is that <em>now</em> is a pure indexical after all, insofar as its interpretation is determined without recourse to extra-linguistic supplementation. Specifically, we argue that any occurrence of <em>now</em> selects the consequent state of the most prominent event, where event-prominence is linguistically maintained through prominence-affecting updates contributed by coherence relations. Our analysis accounts straightforwardly for a wide range of discourse initial and discourse bound uses of <em>now</em> while giving it a simple indexical meaning.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:55:20Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:fc3fc3e9-082e-441c-aa5f-e95fefd035e4 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:55:20Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Linguistic Society of America |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:fc3fc3e9-082e-441c-aa5f-e95fefd035e42023-08-10T14:40:25ZFormal properties of now revisitedJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:fc3fc3e9-082e-441c-aa5f-e95fefd035e4EnglishSymplectic ElementsLinguistic Society of America2021Stojnić, UAltshuler, D<p>The traditional view is that <em>now</em> is a pure indexical, denoting the utterance time. Yet, despite its initial appeal, the view has faced criticism. A range of data reveal <em>now</em> allows for discourse-bound (i.e., anaphoric) uses, and can occur felicitously with the past tense. The reaction to this has typically been to treat <em>now</em> as akin to a true demonstrative, selecting the prominent time supplied by the non-linguistic context or prior discourse. We argue this is doubly mistaken. The first mistake concerns the semantic value of <em>now</em> which is not a time, but a state --- the consequent state of a prominent event. The second is that <em>now</em> is a pure indexical after all, insofar as its interpretation is determined without recourse to extra-linguistic supplementation. Specifically, we argue that any occurrence of <em>now</em> selects the consequent state of the most prominent event, where event-prominence is linguistically maintained through prominence-affecting updates contributed by coherence relations. Our analysis accounts straightforwardly for a wide range of discourse initial and discourse bound uses of <em>now</em> while giving it a simple indexical meaning.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Stojnić, U Altshuler, D Formal properties of now revisited |
| title | Formal properties of now revisited |
| title_full | Formal properties of now revisited |
| title_fullStr | Formal properties of now revisited |
| title_full_unstemmed | Formal properties of now revisited |
| title_short | Formal properties of now revisited |
| title_sort | formal properties of now revisited |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stojnicu formalpropertiesofnowrevisited AT altshulerd formalpropertiesofnowrevisited |